My Life By a Snapshot

Dear readers, Yesterday while trying to take some pictures, my brother Yannick, and I discovered that we could climb onto the roof of our house via the water tank. Along with his lost ball, Yannick and I captured some nice photos. At first we were both a little anxious since we did not know how stable the tiles are. We climbed onto a lower tin roof first, then worked up the courage to go all the way to the top. We were rewarded with a beautiful view, some pictures for you and Yannick's long lost yellow hand ball. For the next two weeks I have a break from school. So my family and I are heading up north to spend three days at the orphanage and one and a feeding center. I will update you on all that when I get back!  As always thank you for reading. Darcy-Rea

Dear readers, There is a river that flows through the middle of town. The river divides the town in half; one side is the commercial side and the other is the industrial side. Often when we talk about  a place we will ask "Which side of the river is it on?" Mum and I ride along the river usually once every week when we go to a store in town called Heng Chey Lee. This is where we get all of our more western food; including pasta, cookies, juice and sweets. The river is very peaceful during the day with not too many people out and about. But when night falls the paths are crowded and people are everywhere. It's cooler during the evening and night so everyone goes out at the time. In the video the river is fairly low, but once the monsoon rains come it should fill up much more. Not too many boats are seen down the river but occasionally you may see one. Often there are boats tied to the side of the river.The more poor people will bath and swim in the river to cle

Dear readers, We have already experienced twice that Cambodians do birthdays much differently to how we do it in the western world. Birthdays are almost non-existent here. No birthday parties and if they are they are always brought upon by the birthday girl/boy. And gifts are not given often on birthdays. It made me think how we make birthdays seem so big and important when it's just another day. It doesn't feel special or different unless people make it feel special or different. I spent my day shopping with mum and a friend. Then God sent some beautiful rain so my siblings and I played around in it for a while. In the evening we ate out at a restaurant with three of my new Cambodian friends. I learnt that it's not what you get or what you do on your birthday that makes it special but the people you spend it with. As always thank you for reading. Darcy-Rea

Dear readers, Our house feels like a little slice of paradise;lush green trees, sun shining, bright flowers! Big walls surround the property making us feel isolated, bu in a good way. We feel safe, we feel like we have privacy for the first time in almost a year. It feels nice to be able to say that this is out home, that this is our space. We have enjoyed every place we have stayed in the last year and we are grateful for all the people who have opened up their homes to us. But at the end of the day we all like to have a house, a home of our own. I will be fifteen on Monday. I have lived in over fifteen houses in those years.I have loved every single one of them and I will miss all of them. Each one so unique and each one wonderful in it's own special way. I have called them all home in one stage of of my life. Where do you call home? Darcy-Rea

Dear readers, Yesterday we moved to our new house! It takes us about one minute on our bicycle to get to the center. Here in Cambodia the fences and gates are very big. In addition to having a big gate ours is very colorful. We have a nice driveway lined with lanterns. There is a small barque area in the garden. we have many fruit tees including guava, banana and orange. The fruit aren't ripe yet as they were picked just before we moved in. It is considered a luxury here to have wooden furniture. They are all engraved with beautiful patterns and flowers. But The fact that everything is made out of wood makes it very hard to move furniture around because they are very heavy.  We have eaten outside so far because it is much cooler and we get a breeze. But we do need to get some more plastic chairs because we only have four at the moment. There are many things we still need to get including mats, pots and some sheets. But once we get our boxes the house will feel muc